Honestly, I've been waiting for this movie ever since I
first read the book.
Ender’s Game is a phenomenal book
that I have personally fallen in love with. The characterization and dialog in
the book are exceptionally good (partly due to the author’s experience in
playwriting), and the uniqueness of the story line and the themes place this
book very high on my list of great books. Actually, it puts it at the top.
Now, all of that being said, my
expectations for the movie are very low. Don’t get me wrong, it looks exciting,
and I don’t have many problems with the casting choices, but you know what
people always say about turning books into movies: the book is always better.
If this is true with most books, then it will be even truer with Ender’s Game.
The book itself is about 10% action and 90% philosophical scenes and thoughts,
and while that is one of the reasons that I value the book, that will be very
hard to portray in a movie. Also, most of the cast is going to be children, and
that almost worries me a bit. Sure, kid actors are great, but how will the
movie do with almost an entire cast that is below the age of thirteen.
Yet, there are a lot of things that
this movie has going for it too. For one, I think most of the actors are great choices,
especially the casting of Asa Butterfield as Ender (If you don’t know him, he’s
the boy from “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”). The only casting I don’t like
is Hailee Steinfield as Petra. Any girl who is pretty enough to be cast as
Juliet from “Romeo and Juliet” will have a hard time portraying Petra’s rough “screw
you” attitude. Anyway, I also think that the animation technology will do the
book justice. Orson Scott Card (the author) has waited this long to make a
movie specifically for this reason, so if he thinks movie animation is ready,
then so do I.
Overall, I’m incredibly excited for
this movie. In fact, I’m likely to go see the first midnight showing of it, a
practice that I do not consider very often. The movie is schedualed to air
November 1st, and I encourage everyone around me to at least give
the movie a shot because I’m expecting that it will be a fun ride.
If you have any comments about the
upcoming movie, please leave a comment in the comment section, or feel free to
send me an e-mail at 97InkWellRights@gmail.com
Gotta disagree with your disagreement with the casting of Hailee Steinfeld, who played a very tough, Petra-like character in one of my favorite films of all time, the 2010 remake of "True Grit." She was nominated for an Academy Award for the role and it's one of the best child performances I've seen in recent memory. She's extremely talented, rugged and precocious, and it's her casting as Juliet that seems a tad misguided, not vice-versa.
ReplyDeleteI really dig your avatar, Ben! That's a great movie.
Delete--Ben
I remember reading that book in the summer before entering high school. I strongly disliked the book, only because I'm not into science fiction.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm pretty sure the movie is gonna be pretty good, I can't say I share your enthusiasm for it. Call me crazy, but I wasn't a big fan of the book. Hope it lives up to your expectations though!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see this movie, but I can't comment on actor choices because I'm horrible at doing that! I think it's going to be fantastic, and I loved the book.
ReplyDeleteSo I understand the excitement because this is an exciting moment!! HOWEVER, Hailee Stienfeld can definitely play the tough girl she did an amazing job in True Grit and was nominated for an Academy Award, so I personally think she will do great! Yet, I am very excited to see it and I'm super glad you blogged about it!
ReplyDeleteJust like Ben and Anna, I agree that Hailee Steinfield would be great for the role. I had no idea until I read your blog that Ender's Game was going to be made into a movie. I'm not sure about how the movie's going to turn out though, because like you said, the book is primarily thought-based. Thanks for blogging about it!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea they were making Ender's Game into a movie! This is such exciting news!! I'm excited to see how they portray the different scenes, because as you said, most of the book is not action. It'll be interesting and I hope it turns out well.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Ender's Game and the movie has been sitting in my watchlist on IMDB for so long now. I'm not familiar with the actors in the movie that much, so its nice to have someone explain it clearly. I think it will be interesting how they do the graphics, like the computer/game board and the final battle. I think it will be kind of mild psychological thriller with a lot of Ender just thinking. It might be kind of boring just watching him play video games though. Hehe kidding.
ReplyDeleteI won't make any comment on the capability of the cast to play their roles mainly becuase I personally do not know the difference between Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise. I literally had to check with Ben before writing that just to make sure they were both actual actors. So on another note Nick I think I totally agree with you. You make a great point about the wait of the pyschological weight on the book that would be very difficult to remake for a movie. For your sake though Nick, I wish the movie the best.
ReplyDeleteI also loved the book and am really excited for the movie to come out. I recently saw the trailer and it seemed like their interpretation of the book was pretty decent. I definitely agree with you about Asa Butterfield fitting the role of Ender. Hopefully the movie will turn out to be as good as I expect.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading the book and being really suprised about all the philosophical thoughts that were in it! While the prospect of a movie is very exciting, I feel that incorporating the philosophy and balancing it with the action that many movie fans crave will be a tough challenge. I have low expectations but I'm still excited!
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